The Xmas Truce – 1914

The Vatican called for a Christmas ceasefire during the First World War, which had barely begun. Many believed the war would last only a few months and the everyone would return safely home – they couldn’t have been more wrong. The only thing you can effectively predict about a war is when it will begin but never when it will end.

The German government decided to respect the truce and on Christmas Eve began singing songs, according to eyewitness accounts they started singing the well-known English carol ‘Silent Night’.  The British joined them and the next morning, Christmas Day the two enemies met in No-Man’s Land where they exchanged gifts, cigarettes and famously played football.

There were many such encounters all along the Western Front and not just one such meeting. The fraternisation was considered a scandal by both British and German High Commands.

While the following year of 1915 there were similar ceasefires, the growing brutality of the conflict and the determination of both commands to deter such camaraderie ensured that the 1914 Truce was difficult to replicate.

What made the Truce unique and could it be repeated in future conflicts?

Probably not. The trenches were so close together that soldiers could smell what the enemy was cooking and the short distance between them must surely have been a deciding factor in bringing the two sides together. In modern conflict and the long distance weapons mean that such close proximity is no longer a possibly.

The Christmas Truce then is locked in time and may never be repeated, unless we return to trench warfare in the future.

British and German soldiers hold a Christmas truce during the Great War by McBride, Angus (1931-2007